A Moment of Peace
by DigiKouichi
Summary: After Declaring it was time to head home, the paladins and friends take a moment to rest, relax, and catch up. It's been a long day and they have a long road ahead of them.


_**A/N:** Keith was so beat up, and the team has been through so much, i decided to give them a moment to rest and relax. i also needed a small brake from the prompts but truth is i've been writing this along side the prompts so... _

_**Disclaimer:** ... Voltron not mine_

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The elation of going home, of going back to earth, filled Keith with renewed strength and he turned to his team. They were all exhausted, happy but exhausted.

Keith took a small but deep breath, closing his eyes only for a moment, and gathered his strength. They couldn't relax just yet.

"Pidge, Coran." He opened his eyes and looked at his friends. "We need to let the coalition and Matt know what happened here."

"Oh, that's right!" Pidge gasped and made a beeline for the green lion, followed closely by Coran.

"Leave it to us!"

"Krolia, Romelle do you two mind trying to get in contact with the Blades of Momora?" He asked.

"We'll handle it." Krolia nodded before turning away and escorting the young Altaen to the black lion. Hopefully, Black would allow his mother to at least use his communication consol. Keith gave the black lion a, quick, hopeful but weary look before turning to the remaining paladins.

"The rest of us should set up camp for the night. Hunk, Allura, you two are in charge of setting up the site while Lance and I will try and gather some things to burn."

"Roger!" Hunk gave a mock solute before making a run for his lion.

"Understood…" Allura gave him a tired smile. She made her way to Blue, pausing only to give Lance's shoulder a quick, supportive squeeze.

"What about Shiro?" Lance asked, a tinge of guilt still in his voice.

"We'll make him comfortable before heading out." Keith kneeled down and beckoned his wolf to him. The creature perked up and teleported strait to Keith, booping his nose into the young mans hand. "You have an extra sleeping bag in Red, right?"

"Y-yeah…" Lance turned and quickly ran to Red, looking over his shoulder at Shiro.

Keith scratched his wolf behind the ears and gave the creature a small smile.

"And you get the most important job of all." The wolf's ears perked up and he looked at Keith expectantly. Keith patted the ground next to Shiro. "You stay here and watch over Shiro."

The wolf gave a bark and licked Keith's face before settling down next to Shiro, his head on the sleeping mans chest.

"I said 'watch over him' not sleep on him." Keith wiped the wolf slobber of his face with a tired smile and tried to stand up.

But no sooner had he put weight onto his leg, did it give out. Keith managed to catch himself and returned to a kneeling position. The adrenaline that had been keeping him going had finally fizzled out.

Even with all of the Quintessence that had been flowing through Voltron, Keith was still badly injured from his fight with Shiro's clone.

Taking a deep breath, Keith pushed himself onto one leg and then slowly stood up. He held his head in his right hand, messaging his headache away, being mindful not to touch his burning cheek.

He mildly wondered how bad the burn was before pushing the thoughts away as Lance ran back towards them, Altean sleeping bag in hand.

"Keith!" Lance gave a panicked shout. "Keith, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Lance." Keith tried to give him a mildly annoyed look but instead he ended up giving the Cuban boy a tired smile. "We don't have time to rest just yet. Help me get Shiro into the sleeping bag."

"But… you're injured!" Lance protested as Keith took the sleeping bag from him and laid it out. "You're actually in worse shape the Shiro is!" Lance paused at that.

Physically, Shiro was, more or less, in good shape. His Galra arm was gone but that had been a prosthetic and had no real affect on his body. Now, mentally, emotionally, and dare he think it, _magically_ , Shiro was exhausted.

But physically? He was fine…

Keith was the one covered in injuries. On his left cheek, a bright red bruise was turning purple, another one was peeking out from under his chin, and if the number of dents in his armor was anything to go by… his body was probably a nice patch work of red and blue… and that wasn't even taking into account the nasty burn on the Keith's right cheek.

"Lance?" Keith gave the boy an exasperated look. "Lance, stop staring. We can worry about my injuries once we get a fire going." He opened up the Altean sleeping bag and nudged his Wolf off Shiro.

"But, but! You look like you were chewed up and then spat out by a robeast!"

Keith gave Lance an incredulous half glare.

"Thanks." Came the sarcastic reply. "Now shut up and help me."

The current black paladin lifted the former black paladin into a sitting position but knew he was to weak to lift Shiro up fully.

"But-" Lance tried to argue but was immediately cut off.

"Lance, listen. I know exactly how badly I'm injured. That's way I'm having you help me." He gave his friend/rival a tired and really annoyed glare.

"What?"

"Everyone is tired, that's why we need to get camp set up. The sooner the better. My injuries hurt but I can guarantee nothing is broken. That's why I need you to help me gather firewood. I can't carry anything too heavy right know. And I'm not sending you out alone."

Lance gaped at Keith. He had not been expecting such an honest and straightforward answer.

"Lance, you look like a fish." Keith replied to the red paladin's bug eyed and opened mouth shock. The black paladin was both annoyed and amused by Lance's honest expression.

Once Lance composed himself and realized he wasn't winning this argument, he kneeled down to help Keith move Shiro.

"Who are you and what have you done to Keith…" Lance asked in fake suspicion.

"Lance. Shut. Up." Keith groaned without malice as the two moved Shiro onto the sleeping bag. Keith's wolf moved himself onto the head of the sleeping bag and Keith guided Shiro's head onto the cosmic creatures side.

"Aw, isn't that cute. Did you teach him that?"

"No," Keith gave the wolf an exasperated smile, "He just likes to cuddle."

"Lemme guess. He's like those big dog's at home who think their still a small puppy."

"Yep." Keith closed up the sleeping bag and gave the wolf a quick scratch behind the ears. "Alright," Keith pushed himself back onto his feet with a bit of a wobble, "Let's head out."

Lace gave Keith a worried look. He opened his mouth and-

"No, Lance. I'm not staying here. We don't know what kind of creature's live here. It's not safe for you to head out alone." And with that he walked towards his lion. "We'll need our speeders and some rope."

\- o - o - o - o -

A couple hours later they had camp all set up for the night. A makeshift canopy stood over Shiro, while a campfire burned a few feet away from him. Logs had been lined around the fire in a makeshift circle, while a few more sleeping bags had been laid to rest underneath the canopy.

Pidge and Hunk where leaning against one of the logs while Coran and Allura were sitting across from them. Lance and the wolf were sitting by Shiro, while Romelle, Keith, and Krolia sat opposite from them.

Pidge was typing away at her laptop while Coran and Allura were passing the time talking about a potential Monster & Mana game. Meanwhile, Hunk was eyeing the food roasting over the fire. It was a strange creature Keith had brought back for them to eat and… well, he wasn't quite sure if it was an animal or a giant bug. Romelle, who was also weary about the food, was helping Hunk keep an eye it.

Keith, on the other hand was finally getting his injuries tended to. He had taken off his paladin armor and was sitting in nothing but a pair of shorts.

He was also doing his level best not to scream at how painful the disinfectant was.

"Hold still, Keith." Krolia gently but firmly pulled Keith's face towards her and dabbed the disinfectant on a nasty scrape just below his chin. He held back a hiss and Lance couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy.

His entire body was indeed covered in bruise. Most weren't bad, some were pretty nasty looking and Lance was one hundred percent sure Keith's entire body was going to be sore in the morning.

But none of the bruises were as bad as the burn. It was red and swollen and had started to scab along the edges. Krolia had already disinfected it and it had been the only time Keith had cried out in pain. Lance could still see the lingering tears in the corner of his eyes.

Once Krolia had finished disinfecting Keith's scrape she placed a bandage there and over the burn, then looked over the rest of the team.

"Does anyone else need the First aid kit?"

Choruses of "Nope!" "I'm alright." And "No thank you." rang out around the camp sit.

"Alright." She packed up the first aid kit and then turned the meat over the fire around.

"Um… Excuse me, Miss Krolia?" Hunk called out nervously. "Are you sure this… thing is edible?"

Krolia looked at Keith with a questioning look. He was in the middle of trying to put on Shiro's old vest but his muscles had finally started screaming their pain at him.

"Keith, did you scan the food?" Krolia asked.

"Huh?" He blinked back the pain filled tears in his eyes, before seeing both Hunk and Romelle's nervous looks. "Oh, the food?"

Hunk and Romelle nodded quickly, with Allura quickly joining them.

"It's… not the most appetizing looking thing in the universe…" Pidge peeked over her laptop.

"Yeah, don't we have food goo from the castle?" Lance asked.

"We," Keith paused as pain shot through his back, "need to save the food from the castle. Without the castle to make the right wormholes, who knows how long it'll take to reach home." Krolia helped Keith put the vest the rest of the way on.

"But…" Hunk gave the meat a sideways glance. "Is it edible?"

"Yes," Keith raised a brow, "I scanned it after it attacked us. It's edible."

"…" Hunk groaned. "It… doesn't look edible…"

"It look's a lot more edible then what Krolia and I have been eating in the Quantum Abyss." Keith zipped up the vest then cut off a piece of the meat.

Without even a hint of hesitation he popped the meat into his mouth and ate it.

"It actually tastes better to." He said after he swallowed.

The rest of team Voltron could only stare in object horror at what they just witnessed.

"You… didn't even hesitate…" Hunk whispered with a creaky voice.

"Just what kind of life have you been living?" Lance asked, slightly afraid of the answer.

"I told you, right? Time flows differently where we've been." Keith cut off another piece of meat and walked over to his wolf. "Krolia and I have basically been on a two year camping trip."

'TWO YEARS!?" Everyone from the castle of lions exclaimed. Keith blink owlishly at their surprise. He could have sworn the loudness of their combined voices almost toppled him over.

"But we only saw you a couple weeks ago!" Pidge exclaimed.

"Like I said," Keith gave her a weary smile as he gave the meat to his wolf, "Time flows differently their."

"In the Quantum Abyss there is only one path that is not heavily effected by the time difference." Krolia explained. "Our ship was attack by what we know believe to be some of Lotor's defenses. As a result we lost the ship and had to find an alternate route." Krolia cut off a piece of meat for herself before continuing. "The way there took two years but thanks to the Altean ship the way back was only a few hours."

"That's…" Lance wanted to say something but his words died in his throat.

A heavy silence descended upon the camp as Krolia's words sunk in. Pidge had stopped typing and Coran had tears in his eyes.

"Two years…" Pidge broke the silence. "That's…" she faltered.

"A long time." Allura voiced everyone's thoughts out loud. "A _very_ long time…"

"It was." Keith confirmed. "We had no way of knowing how long the journey would take but," Keith gave everyone a small but reassuring smile, "it wasn't actually that bad." Keith stood up and sat back down between Krolia and Romelle.

"I certainly enjoyed the mission." Krolia said happily before taking a bite of her food.

"It doesn't take much to make you happy…" Keith groaned but a smile was twitching on his lips.

"I'm a simple woman." She replied after swallowing her food. The smile on her face was soft but seemed to hold a bit of mischief. Keith's shoulders sagged just a little and he sighed in embarrassment.

"How can you be simple?" Lance asked incredulously. "You're a Blade of Momora _and_ Keith's mom! Nothing about that seems simple!"

"Lance…" Keith groaned, ready to tell him to shut up but Krolia hummed and gave Keith a quick and mischievous look.

"Oh but I am." She smiled. "There's only one thing in this entire universe that I desire."

"And that is?" Hunk asked.

"Krolia, don't." Keith gave his mother a slightly exasperated look. He knew exactly what she was going to say.

"To be by my son's side." She said it anyway, a small smile on her face.

"Aaaaaag…" Keith groaned lightly and hid his face in his hands, being mindful of his burn.

Silence stretched on for a few moments before a small sniffle broke it. Keith peeked through his fingers. He had expected someone to tease him but instead he was met with five sets of teary eyes.

"Keith, that's… that's wonderful!" Lance stammered a big smile on his face.

"It's… taken a while to sink in but," Allura also broke into a big smile, "You've found your mother! And I," She looked at Keith and then at Krolia, "Am so honored to meet her."

Keith's face was beginning to turn bright red but,

"Thank you, Allura." He gave her an understanding smile, as did Krolia. Keith then gave Lance a grateful smile as well.

"Actually," Pidge wiped away a few happy tears, "How did you meet Krolia?"

"Yeah, last we heard you were going on a mission to possibly dispose of a… weapon of mass destruction?" Hunk added.

Keith and Krolia shared a look but while Krolia smirked and went back to eating, Keith groaned and hid his face again.

"I'm pretty sure Kolivan set it up…" he grumbled into his hands.

"Kolivan?" Coran raised a brow. He took a good look at the new black paladin and said paladin's mother, before snapping his fingers in sudden realization. "Ah, I see! He knew because you two look alike!"

"Probably…" Keith didn't deny. "But knowing Kolivan he sent me to make sure Krolia did come back…"

"So… What happened?" Hunk asked.

Keith took a breath, as his body's tiredness caught up to him. He slipped off the log so he could lean against it and began filling his friends in on what happened.

Eventually, Krolia began filling in the gasps he missed before taking over the story entirely. But by that point Keith had begun to truly fade into unconscious and the last thing he was aware of was Krolia's hand in his hair and the smiles of his team.

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 _ **A/N:** thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed it! if you see any spelling or grammar errors please let me know! :)_


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